1979 History/Videos

Show history for:

Untitled Document

1979 For the first time in history a woman Margaret
Thatcher is elected Prime minister in the UK. As technology becomes smaller
Sony released the Walkman a worldwide success costing $200 which at that
time was a significant amount of money. Also the first Snowboard is invented
in the USA. The bombing by the IRA in England continues with Lord Mountbatten
and three others assassinated. Following the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini Iran becomes an Islamic Republic and 63 Americans are taken hostage
in the American Embassy in Tehran

Cost of Living 1979

How Much things cost in 1979
Yearly Inflation Rate USA 11.2%
Year End Close Dow Jones Industrial Average 838
Interest Rates Year End Federal Reserve 15.25%
Average Cost of new house $58,100.00
Average Income per year $17,500.00
Average Monthly Rent $280.00
Cost of a gallon of Gas 86 cents
Sony Walkman $200.00
Jox Trainers $14.99

What Events Happened in 1979

USSR Invades
Afghanistan

Margaret Thatcher elected Prime minister
in UK

Severe Atlantic Storm hits Fastnet International
Yacht Race and a number of boats and crew are lost

Following the Burgess, Mclean, Philby and
Sir Anthony Blunt Spy Scandal he is stripped of his knighthood

SALT II arms limitation Talks signed
by US and USSR

Eleven fans are killed and dozens are injured
at a WHO Concert at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, Ohio

Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident
after fire at reactor in Pennsylvania US

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns
to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile and takes over the Iranian
law enforcement, courts and government administration and Khomeini seizes
power in Iran

63 Americans are taken hostage in the
American Embassy in Tehran

Iran's government becomes Islamic Republic
when the Shah of Persia is forced to leave

The Dictator Idi Amin is deposed in
Uganda

A mob attack destroys the US Embassy in Islamabad,
Pakistan

The Sahara Desert experiences snow for 30
minutes.

13 Tornadoes ripped through Texas and
Oklahoma

The first black-led government of Rhodesia
in 90 years takes power and the countries name is changed to Zimbabwe,

Pope John Paul II visits his native
Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country

President Hasan al-Bakr resigns and Vice President
Saddam Hussein replaces him in Iraq

The first British nudist beach is established
in Brighton

Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem
Begin sign the first peace treaty between an Arab nation and the Jewish
state

Lord Mountbatten and three others assassinated
by the I.R.A.. He was a British admiral, statesman and an uncle of Prince
Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

23 people die in Nice, France, when
the coastal town is hit by a tsunami

The Sandinista National Liberation Front overthrow
the regime in the central American republic of Nicaragua

3000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade
the United States embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages

China institutes the one child per family
rule to help control it's exploding population

The worlds first anthrax epidemic begins
in Ekaterinburg, Russia following a biological weapons plant accident

"American Airlines Flight 191"
crashed and exploded in a field near O'Hare International Airport in
Chicago

The price of oil reaches a new record
of $24 per barrel

The British Conservative MP Airey Neave is
killed by a car bomb

Pakistan's former Prime Minister, Zulfikar
Ali Bhutto is executed

Popular Culture 1979

Popular Films

Superman The
Movie

Every Which Way But Loose

Rocky II

Alien

The Amityville Horror

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Moonraker

The Muppet Movie

The Deer Hunter

Kramer vs. Kramer

Popular Musicians

Bee Gees with
" Love you Inside Out "

Rod Stewart

Gloria Gaynor with " I will Survive "

Blondie with " heart of Glass "

Michael Jackson

The Eagles

Commodores

Pink Floyd

The Police

Village People

Boomtown Rats

Popular TV Programs

All My Children

Masterpiece Theatre

Old Grey Whistle Test

M*A*S*H

The Price Is Right

The Waltons

The Young and the Restless

Happy Days

Little House on the Prairie

Saturday Night Live

Charlie's Angels

Family Feud

Quincy, M.E.

The Muppet Show

The Love Boat

Three's Company

Dallas

Diff'rent Strokes

Mork amd Mindy

Taxi

Technology 1979

VisiCalc becomes
the first spreadsheet program.

Sony introduces the Sony Walkman costing $200.00

Voyager I photo reveals Jupiter's rings

The European Space Agency launches Ariane
1

Inventions Invented by Inventors and Country
( or attributed to First Use )